11 Common Reasons Companies Don’t Do Employee Engagement

According to a recent Gallup poll, a mere 32% of US workers were engaged in 2015. Yes, that represents a slight uptick from the 31.5% of workers that were engaged in 2014. But it still leaves a lot to be desired.

Why are so few American professionals engaged at work? The answer could very well be rooted in the fact that many business leaders haven’t yet invested appropriately in engagement efforts. Why is that? Here are 11 reasons why companies don’t invest in employee engagement:

1. They think it’s not a problem

CEOs, particularly those whose companies have been around for some time, may feel as though all of their employees are engaged — despite what the data tells us. But just because they create their own realities doesn’t mean they’re true.

2. They don’t really care about their workforce’s well-being

Let’s face it: not every organization has its workers’ best interests at heart. Some companies view their employees as subservient and are perfectly fine with them toiling away. Of course, these organizations almost certainly have terrible retention rates.

3. They have other priorities

CEOs may understand the importance of employee engagement but have so many other competing priorities that they simply don’t invest in improving it. They might be more interested in cranking out a new product or targeting a new market.

4. They don’t understand its importance

5. They think it takes too much time

Employees at all levels already have a lot on their plates as it is. Throw in yet another responsibility and things get that much trickier. Thanks to new tools, however, doing engagement the right way hardly takes any time at all.

6. They don’t want to change anything

Some people are stubborn and refuse to change. They’re set in their ways and have always done things the same, so they see no reason to change their routines.

7. They think it’s too expensive

New initiatives always cost money. But engagement doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Just get a little creative and think outside the box, and you should be able to improve engagement without breaking the bank.

8. They are top-down organizations

While some organizations value input from all employees, others only care about information that comes from the top. These companies simply don’t understand the value of soliciting feedback from lower-ranking employees. That’s pretty foolish. You never know who’s going to come up with the next game-changing idea.

9. They think it’s too hard

Some managers think they need to reinvent the wheel to improve engagement. But they’re wrong. You can see your engagement stats improve simply by leveraging a tool like pulse survey that digs beneath the surface of workplace sentiment.

10. They don’t know what to do

Engagement may be baffling to some managers. They just have no idea where to get started. The good news is that engagement is actually pretty easy. Here are some ideas to get you thinking in the right direction.

11. They’ve never heard of it

Some companies have never even heard of employee engagement. So they obviously aren’t too interested in spending time and resources improving it.

While change can be difficult for any organization, companies that launch employee engagement initiatives will almost certainly see team morale and productivity improve. This, in turn, boosts employee retention and pads the company purse.